The NBA Eastern Conference Play-In Tournament is set, and the seventh-seeded Nets will face the eighth-seeded Cavaliers at 7 p.m. Tuesday night at Barclays Center for a spot in the playoffs proper.
The game will be nationally televised on TNT and broadcast on WFAN.
Brooklyn, Cleveland, Atlanta, and Charlotte all won their season finales Sunday, keeping them in the seventh through tenth spots, respectively. That format gives the Nets two chances to reach the postseason proper; if they win Tuesday night, they advance as the seventh seed, and if they don’t, they will play the winner of Wednesday’s Hawks-Hornets game on Friday night to determine the No. 8 seed.
The Nets finished the regular season 44-38, four wins shy of the 48 they tallied last season en route to the Eastern Conference semifinals.
If Brooklyn defeats Cleveland to get the No. 7 seed, they will face either Milwaukee or Boston in the first round, pending the result of the Celtics’ season finale Sunday night. The Bucks finished 51-31, so if Boston defeats Memphis to also finish 51-31, they would get the No. 2 seed on the fourth tiebreaker of conference record; if the Celts lose, however, it’s Milwaukee in the second spot.
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Philadelphia could also finish 51-31 with a season-ending win over Detroit, but the Sixers would lose the tiebreaker to both Boston and Milwaukee, meaning they can only finish third or fourth.
Should the Nets lose Tuesday but then defeat the Hawks or Hornets Friday to become the eighth seed, they would face Miami, who clinched the East’s top seed earlier this week.
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